Palestinian community center, Rutgers student group targeted in online hate campaign

Hundreds of negative online messages flooded the Facebook pages of a community center in Clifton and a Rutgers student group over the weekend, in what appeared to be an organized effort targeting them for their support of Palestinian causes.

Some commenters accused the Palestinian American Community Center and the Rutgers chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine of being terrorists, terrorist sympathizers and liars — allegations the groups dismissed as politically motivated smears. 

Rania Mustafa, executive director of the community center, said 400 posts were written on the center’s Facebook page over just a few hours on Sunday morning. The posts were attached to one-star reviews that drove the community center’s rating from a 4.8 out of five to a 1.8.

“It was very shocking because of the fact that it has nothing to do with the center,” Mustafa said. “It was blatant that it was people who don’t know our center and have never been to our center writing these hateful comments.”

The online attacks come as social media is emerging as a critical battlefront in the fraught Israeli-Palestinian conflict, creating springboards for activism but also forums for hate. But as in all political speech nowadays, there are few ways to curb online speech, even when it is extreme or harms the ratings and reputation of an organization.

Many of the comments on the center’s page were written by people who, according to their Facebook pages, live in Israel. In the reviews, some accused the center of being linked to terrorist groups or claimed that Palestine or the Palestinian people did not exist. The comments did not include threats of harm or violence.

The negative comments continued to be posted on Wednesday, although at a slower pace. Mustafa has blocked people from the page and reported comments to Facebook, but she said the social media company removed only a small fraction.

The center appealed to its members and supporters to counter the negative messages with positive ones, and many have done that by writing in with praise for its programs. By Wednesday afternoon, there were nearly 1,300 reviews and a 3.4-star rating.

Mustafa worried that a low rating would hurt the center’s online brand and drive down the visibility of its online posts. But she wasn’t concerned that members would leave or that public officials would stop visiting because of a lack of substance in the comments.

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“It’s very clear that it’s hate speech," Mustafa said. "It’s a group of people that don’t like the general idea of what we’re about and they’re being hateful for it.” She added that the center is reviewing safety drills and policies as a precaution.

The 4-year-old center offers programs like Arabic language classes, classes in traditional dance, homework help, taekwondo lessons and poetry contests. It holds leadership workshops and events celebrating Palestinian-American elected officials.

Although it’s not a political organization, it does host programs of a political nature. That has included a speech by a Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset and an appearance by Sayim Nuwara, whose son was killed by an Israeli sniper in an incident caught on surveillance video three years ago. In the spring, the center also put up an information tent about Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike.

Mustafa said she does not know why the center was singled out in recent days, but noted that it has worked with Rutgers Students for Justice in Palestine, which faced a similar onslaught of negative comments starting on Friday.

Duaa Abdulla, a board member of the group, said students have tried to turn the experience into a positive one by seeking out encouraging messages and support. “Many who had not liked our page earlier heard what happened through friends and started liking our page, and people starting putting really nice comments,” she said.

Although the volume of bad reviews was surprising, it’s not the first time that the student group has been targeted, Abdulla said, noting that it got a slew of anti-Muslim comments on a Google forum recently. Another time, she called the police after someone created a Facebook page specifically to harass her for her activism.

“We have had threats in the past,” Abdulla said. “So in the last few events, Rutgers provided a uniformed cop to come to our events and patrol the area. Sometimes we get threats online.”

Social media as a new battlefront

The organizations said they traced the first posts to an Israeli-American businessman, Joe Zevuloni, who lives in southern Florida. On his Facebook page, he called for his followers to take action on pages of the Palestinian American Community Center and the Rutgers student group.

Zevuloni did not return calls seeking comment on Wednesday.

For the affected groups, it was clear it was an organized effort not only because of the volume of comments, but also because the same paragraph was copied and shared many times referring to biblical history in the Holy Land.  

The groups are coming under fire at a time when Israeli-Palestinian relations are as fraught as ever and the arguments spill over online in public forums, news comments and Facebook pages.

While she said she welcomes free speech, Abdulla said the online attack crossed a line because it was a “synchronized” effort by people “who are not even from  Rutgers or affiliated with our campus.”

Mustafa also said that the comments went too far.

“When free speech takes away the comfort and safety of others, that’s when it should stop,” she said. “That’s when it shouldn’t be.”

Email: adely@northjersey.com